by Abe Oudshoorn

I would like to take the opportunity of writing this blog post to reflect a bit on household management. Much of what has been written for this site thus far has focused on the idea of the Kingdom of God as a household, and how it can be organized to best reflect its purpose. I, on the other hand, will look at households themselves, and would like to offer a suggestion and hear your feedback.

My family and some friends spent a good portion of 2009 living within the home we own as an intentional community. This involved three individuals moving into our home, and us learning to both share space and live more purposefully. We met weekly for household meetings, and some of this time was spent envisioning what we would like to accomplish in this adventure. We dreamt of starting a community garden, running an after-school program at the public school down the street, opening more community houses, having neighbourhood dinners, starting a sustainable business, and other exciting activities.

However, our day-to-day activities changed little, we spent most of our time working, doing chores, hanging out with friends, and taking care of children. It seemed that while we were theoretically attempting to move away from money as the core of our existence, in reality we spent so much time making money that we had little time for the things we valued most. We often reflected that we lacked a certain amount of capital dollars that we would require to live as we dreamed (for example starting an urban organic farm), or one of us needed a six-figure job.

So I have been reflecting on this, and have thought about how our household might have been organized. I am considering the idea that each household that desires to enact the Kingdom of God, might start by supporting one member in full-time ‘ministry’. That is, within every intentional household there is one individual free from the need to work to make money, whom is supported by the others in the home. This individual could both work to meet the service goals of the household, and work to further separate the household from the economic system in which we find ourselves.

Imagine, for a moment, if every Christian household supported one member in full-time ministry. This looks quite different than every 400-member church supporting one or two pastors. Could this be one pragmatic step in moving towards a Kingdom economy?  I would love to hear your comments.